If you are looking to open a business of your very own, you are not alone. Every year more and more people make the decision to stop working to make other people rich and to start their own businesses. For most of them, having the start-up capital that is needed is harder than one might think.

Small business grants are often a hot topic with new business people with a small amount of money and little access to other capital. We have all seen the many media claims about “Free Government Grant for Small Business.” It seems all too easy to get these days.

Of course, if it were really that easy, all you would have to do is find a government small business grant to apply for, apply and before you knew it you would have the money to grow your business.

Most U.S. government departments, like the Department of Commerce, do not provide any grants for help in starting a small business. Grant programs are available through state programs and other groups as well. The grant programs are often awarded to people in fields such as medicine or education, and they all have specific eligibility criteria.

The process of finding a small business grant program to apply for and reviewing the requirements to getting is very time consuming. After conducting a two-week search for a medical publisher, I found the requirements to be very specific and difficult to meet.

Eligibility can be based on your location, and your business’ sales revenue to the application date, years in business, sex, race, and even for the purpose of funding. If your business sets out on a small business grant seeking mission there are some questions that you will have to answer which are:

1. Do you have the time and the resources available so that you can search for a small business grant program and apply for it?

2. Can you afford to hire a consultant if you are unsure of how to do it, or can you learn the grant application process by yourself?

3. Does your business need the money right now for expansion or can you wait up to a year?

4. If you do decide to ask for a grant, will it hurt your business because it will be taking away time from selling and marketing?

If you want to take a look at the small business grants available, the best place to start is the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA). The CFDA lists thousands of grants from all government agencies for free. Many business grants will be geared towards minority business development or rural business opportunity grants. Do not overlook the other assistance programs available such as equipment and training.

If you do find a small business grant program that is available for your business, you will need to be ready to go through a lengthy, approval process. With today’s funding cutbacks and the high amount of competition you will want to be prepared for it by following these quick tips:

Small Business Grant Tips

- Provide the grant company with all of your complete and accurate information in the application. An incomplete application will likely not make the review process or it can add delay your grant form getting approved.

- Get to know your grant officer and their constraints, budget and concerns with approving your grant.

- Stand out among the crowd with a well-prepared business plan if required. You will have to demonstrate your understanding of the business. Show how the money will bring the benefit the government agency wants.

- Bring in outside experts or consultants to help you if you need it. An accountant or consultant can add credibility to your application process.

- Keep in touch with the company offering the grant. Make regular contact with the grant office in a professional, but non-intrusive manner.

- The task of locating and applying for a small business grant is not for the people who are not willing to go through hell. Take an honest look at alternative sources first, such as loans, personal credit lines, friends and family.

The Internet has grown from a small network of academics needing a way to trade research into a world-spanning, ubiquitous marketplace and repository for nearly every possible kind of information and knowledge. How does a small business avoid being washed away in the constant tide of buying, selling and marketers hawking every conceivable item (and some difficult to conceive…)?

The Internet provides advantages for both customer and proprietor in that one can search for exactly what is desired, without the bother of endless phone calls, driving to malls, or poring over mail-order catalogs. A quick keyword or 3, and hundreds of results vie for attention on the screen. Making sure your company is one of those results near the top is a combination of factors: specificity in product offerings, Search Engine Optimization of web content and linking to and from related topics and sites.

The only way to get noticed on the Internet is to have a listing or presence, whether a dedicated website, ads on relevant sites, or by word-of-mouth. Oftentimes ads on online journals, informative sites, or e-zines (online magazines) are cheaper than space in a print publication, as well as being available to a wider audience than a dedicated website may be. Rates are often available for daily, weekly, or monthly terms, increasing flexibility and allowing a tight budget more leeway. Word-of-mouth advertising can be very cheap, but the returns may be difficult to quantify. Sponsoring web shows such as podcasts or webcasts can be a great and cheap way to gain word-of-mouth exposure. Many times, a podcaster will be so thrilled to gain sponsorship that rates can be negotiated for very little, but make sure to approach a podcaster that has a show related somehow to your business. Don’t overlook resources like Google’s Adwords either, as they can be slightly pricier than similar options like banner ads, but they are shown to be far more effective than pop-ups, banners, or pay-per-click ads due to their specific targeting.

When a potential customer decides to look up a product that you sell, is he or she going to find your site or listing? Being specific in the terms used on your site or listing is key, as keywords are what drive the search engines like Google and Yahoo. If your company sells shoes, it’s not enough to put the word “shoes” on your site–it has to be anticipatory to the searches that potential customers are doing. Most customers have an idea of what they are looking for when doing a search, so instead of “shoes,” a customer will search for “imported Italian leather shoes.” Specific focusing of terminology and product listings are involved in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), as SEO is driven by specific keywords and their repetition or location on a page. If the term “Italian Leather Shoes” is used 15 times on a website, it will pop up higher on the rating listings than one with the same words, but only as a page heading or title. It would be easy to go overboard on this if it were the only criteria, but it is only one of many different methods search engines use to list websites by relevance. Our article on Search Engine Optimization, located here, is a great reference to optimizing your site for maximum Search Engine Performance.

With a clear idea of where you want to go with Internet marketing, it can be a valuable tool to expand your business into the digital realm, but be careful not to go overboard, as all marketing eventually crosses into the zone of limited return. Customers are looking for what they want–it’s up to you to make sure they run into you, and the only way they will is for you to make sure your business is at the places they are going to go.

© 2005, Wholesale Pages UK. All rights reserved.

Work scheduling is one of the most time consuming aspects of a consulting business. First you have the issue of work scheduling that goes into your evenings and weekends and then you have to juggle which clients to schedule when and for how long.

When you first start out, work scheduling for evenings and weekends may be a necessity. You have to pay the bills and if that means supplementing 9-5 clients with the occasional evening or weekend job that’s ok. When you find most of your work is scheduled for evenings and weekends, then you have a problem.

Look to start phasing out some of these nights and weekend jobs as much as possible. Reserve work scheduling for nights and weekends for major emergencies and prescheduled major upgrades. These are not regular occurrences and they might only happen once or twice a year per client. Other tips to try include:

Charge Premiums For Off Hour Work

A useful strategy for discouraging work scheduling on your “off” time is to charge a premium for off hour work. Then, as a marketing tool you can offer service agreements where some or all of these premiums are waived.

Implement Service Minimums

A very important tool for efficient work scheduling is setting a 2 or 3 hour minimum for service calls. This makes your work scheduling much easier and you don’t have to run around to more than 2 or 3 clients a day. If you want to bill 4 hours per day and you work with one hour minimums, you have to see at least 4 different clients per day. Unless they happen to be around the corner or down the street from each other you’re going to drive yourself nuts: Parking, tolls, spending your whole day in the car, it’s not a lot of fun.

Do Work Scheduling in Advance

By scheduling your client visits ahead of time you can maximize your time. Start work scheduling for efficiency – if you will be in the neighborhood 3 weeks from now, book a nearby client for that day as well.

The Bottom Line on Work Scheduling

Work scheduling can give you an edge if you do it correctly. Be smart with your work scheduling and maximize your billable hours and efficiency. With some proactive planning you can make the task of work scheduling work for you, rather than against you.

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I am the owner and manager of a trucking repair company located in the mid-west. My business provides tractor-trailer repair services both in-house and on the road for owner/operators who are in transit. I say “in transit” because a large portion of our business comes from trucks which have broken down on the road. We travel over 200 miles in all directions to get them up and running as fast as we can.

Additionally, we offer diagnostic services and preventive maintenance such as oil changes, plug and wire changes and tune-ups. Located between two fairly large cities, we see a lot of business come in as drivers generally prefer to avoid having to stop near major metropolitan areas as it can often mean several hours of down time. Consequently, we get a lot of calls coming in at certain times of the day, while at other times our phones might not ring for an hour or more. I recently had a trunk study performed on our phone lines, to determine if we were missing calls during our busy times. I wanted to know if adding more phone lines might improve business. I was shocked at the results.

We were missing a lot of incoming calls, more than I had imagined. With the phones ringing off the hook, I really had no idea just how many people were unable to get through. After I received the trunk study results, I added four more lines and hired more customer service representatives. Within a month of doing this, I had to add two extra bays to our building to accommodate the increase in trucks coming in. In short, my business has grown by thirty percent from having the trunk study performed. The alternative would have likely been a decrease in business as drivers might have decided to stop trying to schedule with us as a result of never being able to get through. It just reminds me that what you don’t know can hurt you, or certainly your business.